So, this might be the wrong place to ask this. I'd appreciate it if someone could suggest where else to put it. I work in a small town government office and my boss keeps trying to get me to not reply to people.
There are lots of people who call in asking simple questions, or wanting to volunteer. Sometimes we answer them.
But sometimes my boss tells me just to not call people back or ignore them until they give up trying to contact us. Usually this happens if someone asks a difficult question, or if they aren't really all that well known in the community, or if they are 'weird'.
Then these people call me up angrily or they start telling other people how much we suck. And sometimes there are a-holes who just want to fight and be nasty here too, so I could see ignoring those people.
My boss not a bad guy. Its just the culture around here. Small businesses do it too.
But I'm not used to it. Where my family is from, we always answer communications, and we're always on time. If we are late to things, we give warnings that we will be. If we say we'll do something, we do it.
I have no deadlines. My workload is light. I want to help people. I want to keep my word when I say I'll get back to someone.
What is the most graceful way to handle this?